“He rode the great Cigar to a record-equaling 16 consecutive victories, captured two Kentucky Derbys and won seven Eclipse Awards as the nation’s most outstanding jockey, more than anyone else in history. But yesterday, Jerry Bailey called it quits despite remaining the most dominant jockey in America, if not the world.”
Saying he desired to spend more time with his family and lacked passion for riding on “routine” days, Bailey told reporters on Wednesday that his 32-year Hall of Fame career would end on January 28 at Gulfstream, where he plans to ride three or four races on the Sunshine Millions card. His final race will likely be aboard Silver Tree in the Turf for trainer Bill Mott, a fitting conclusion, given that Mott was responsible for putting Bailey on the horse he’s most associated with, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar.
Like Gary Stevens, who retired last fall, Bailey will take up a new career on TV, joining ABC and ESPN as a racing analyst. He leaves riding with few regrets: “I thought this thing through pretty well,” Bailey said. “I fulfilled everything I wanted to do.” Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Bailey said, “That I gave everybody their money’s worth, and that I always put a horse in position to win if he was good enough.”
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Bailey’s exit from the scene does leave one question: Who will ride trainer Frank Brothers’ talented Derby prospect First Samurai this spring? For next weekend’s Hutcheson at least, Edgar Prado.
Posted by JC in Jockeys on 01/19/2006 @ 10:00 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Oaklawn Park opens Friday, and “this year might be the track’s best yet,” with record purses, more wagering options, a “souped-up” three-year-old series, and full barns to draw on for races.
Trainer John Servis is at Oaklawn and planning on bringing back two of his best horses from layoffs during the meet. Out for much of 2005 with a severe foot injury sustained in the 2004 Remsen, Rockport Harbor could make his long anticipated return to racing in the Essex Handicap on February 11. The gash in Rockport’s hoof is completely healed, said Servis, who described the four-year-old colt as “much more aggressive in his gallops … He’s gotten to be, he’s like Smarty Jones now. The son of a b**** is tough as nails. That’s a good sign.” Acorn winner Round Pond, recovered from surgery last July for a bone chip in her knee, may also start next month. “She is coming along faster than I expected, so there’s a possibility she might run in February,” said Servis.
The opening day stakes at Oaklawn is the Dixieland for three-year-olds at five and half furlongs, and Servis will be represented in that race by Fidrych, who has won two of his last three starts at six furlongs going wire-to-wire. He won’t be the only speed in the race though — there are several fast colts among the 10 entered, including Steve Asmussen’s Catonight (winner of the Sugar Bowl at Louisiana Downs) and Cole Norman’s Corredor de Plata. Trainer Tim Ritchey has entered Urban Guy, his promising three-year-old sprinter.
Posted by JC in Track Notes on 01/19/2006 @ 9:55 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
“All week long I kept winning. It had nothing to do with systems, I was just in touch. When I walked through the grandstand I projected the winner’s aura, blue and enticing. Women smiled openly as I passed. I drank good whiskey and ate well. One night I went to a Japanese restaurant and sat at a table opposite Country Joe McDonald, the singer who’d been a fixture at rallies in the sixties. Joe had a new wife with him, and a new baby who refused to sit still and instead threw an order of sushi around the room. A chunk of tuna flew past my ear. Even this seemed revelatory, the domestic roundness of a star’s life, his interrupted meal, carrying the baby crying into the night, and I knew that someday soon Tuna or Seaweed or Riceball would appear on the menu at Golden Gate and I’d play the horse and win. Things fleshed themselves out before my eyes. In a liquor store I bought two bottles of Sapporo Black and went back to sit on the Terrace steps and listen to my upstairs neighbor’s piano exercises, the dusky fastness of ivory. This tune, I thought, will never end.” — From “Laughing in the Hills,” by Bill Barich
Posted by JC in Readings on 01/18/2006 @ 7:00 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
